The Young Turks - Crash & Burn

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

Donald Trump: UAW negotiations "don't mean as much as you think." Trump may have hired fake union workers to attend his speech. Watch Greg Gutfeld abruptly end a segment after his co-host confronts him with the lack of evidence for a Biden impeachment. First hearing on Biden impeachment absolutely flops. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Neeson. Buy your tickets now.

I get a free Tilly Dog. Chilly Dog, not included. The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body. but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too.

When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients, designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol.

It helps with common issues such as hot flashes, poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. You know,

and so. I'm not a lot of a lot of you know Welcome to TYTY, I'm your host, Anna Kasparean, it has been a week, a busy week, a I'm just like Joe Biden today. It's time for me to take a nap. However, I'm not going to take

that nap until I shared the news with you, including what I would say is the most amusing story of my lifetime, okay? Because the first hearing pertaining to attempts to impeach Joe Biden took place today. And it was a clown show of epic proportions. I mean quality top-notch television for any of you who are interested in watching and amusing yourselves. It's a little sad when you consider the fact that it's taking place in the context of our House of Representatives, especially as we're quickly barreling toward a government shutdown. But we'll get to that story a little later in the show. Jank is out today, but in the second hour, a good friend of the show, Ramesh Sirenivasa,

will be joining me to cover other news stories. We'll talk a little bit about the dispute between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Trump loyalist, Representative Matt Gates. Apparently, things got superheated between those two, and we'll be sharing that story with you in the second hour of the show. But for now, I wanted to go back and revisit Donald Trump's speech in Michigan yesterday, because there are some angles that I wanted to kind of tackle that story from, starting with this. We're going to come to your head man, Sean. I've been watching him in television.

He's a good man. I think he's a good man, but he's got to endorse Trump. You're going to get X dollars an hour. It doesn't matter what the hell you're getting an hour. Do me a fact. Just get your union guys, your leaders to endorse me. Imagine addressing workers, blue-collar workers in Michigan, and basically letting them know, doesn't matter what your hourly pay is.

And the United Auto Workers President, Sean Fane, he should endorse me. Now, I want to provide a little more context because the point that Donald Trump was trying to make as he was addressing workers at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township, Michigan last night, the whole point was to fearmonger about how Biden-era economic policies, especially clean energy policies and electric vehicle related policies will lead to a massive amount of drop losses within the auto industry. Now I want to be abundantly clear, as he was addressing those workers, the situation was much different from what Joe Biden had done a day before. Biden had visited the picket line where unionized, united auto workers were engaging in a strike

against the big three. When Trump did his speech a day later, he did it before. for non-unionized workers. So this is not a union shop. And the real question is, were there members of any union present? We'll get to that later. But first, let's talk a little bit about Trump's messaging in the speech and whether his statements really had any merit to them. Now Trump argued that regardless of the outcome of the UAW strike, the bigger threat to

employees was the shift to electronic cars and trucks, or electric cars, I should say, electric cars and trucks, which he described as a hit job on Michigan and Detroit. Now, he fearmongered about workers losing their job saying that, quote, you can be loyal to American labor or you can be loyal to the environmental lunatics, but you can't really be loyal to both. It's one or the other. Then the man who likes to really fancy himself as an expert on the art of the deal declared that he doesn't think that collective bargaining for better pay and working conditions really matters all that much in the end. Let's watch. To the striking workers, I support you and your goal of fair wages and greater stability,

and I truly hope you get a fair deal for yourselves and your families. But if your union leaders will not demand that Crooked Joe repeal his electric vehicle mandate immediately, then it doesn't matter what hourly words you get. It just doesn't make a damn bit of difference because in two to three years, you will not have one job in this state. Doesn't matter. Fighting for better pay, better working conditions, doesn't matter, you should be scared of losing your job because of electric vehicles. And by the way, the United Auto Workers, who he was not addressing during that speech, absolutely have been concerned about electric vehicles and what it will do to their job. So it is a fair point to

bring up. I will say that. But we're going to break it down, look at the evidence, and we'll talk about the reality of the situation. Because I am concerned about some of these environmental policies, which we clearly need, causing more financial hardship on ordinary Americans. It's something that I've spoken out against. Now, Trump is speaking out against it here, although there's very little evidence to the claims that he's making. But I wanted to give you some more details about what's actually happening. So he was, again, at Drake Enterprises. They make car parts. And they specifically make a lot of car parts for gas powered vehicles. Now Nathan Stemple is the president of Drake Enterprises, and that again is the facility where

Trump is speaking at. But he actually spoke to reporters who asked, hey, are you at all concerned about the electric vehicles putting you out of business? And he said, no, I don't think so. In fact, let me give you some more details on what he does think. While Trump criticized Biden's push to support electric vehicles, Drake Enterprise's president, Nathan Stemple, said the transition is not his top cause of worry currently. The toughest obstacle for his company is finding the right workers. Stemple said ahead of Trump's speech. And I want to be clear, Stemple clearly isn't some Trump hater. He invited Trump to speak at his facility. Seemed like he was super excited about it. But if you were to ask him, hey, honestly, though, what are you really concerned about?

Is it electric vehicles? He said, no, it's not my top concern. Now, he also said this. It would definitely affect us if it changed like a light switch. I don't see that happening. Meaning, look, it appears that this is a slow and steady transition. Part of the reason why he's not so concerned about it. Now, are we really going to talk about job losses right now?

now? Because if we want to talk about job losses, we could talk about job losses. I'm ready to talk about job losses. And I got the receipts. Because we should look at, you know, how many manufacturing jobs Trump created during his presidency and what we're experiencing under the Biden administration, which, to be sure, I've been critical of for a number of different reasons. But you can't really fudge the numbers here. So let's take a look at the numbers. While Trump was president from 2017 to 2021, Ford's engine plant in Romeo shuttered, and GM shuttered a transmission plant in Warren, a power train plant in Baltimore, and closed its Lordstown, Ohio Assembly plant. Stalantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler automobiles, opened a new Jeep

plant on Detroit's east side while idling its Mount Elliott tool and dye plant. It's weird. Did, I don't know, did I miss something? Like, did Donald Trump implement policy to like uplift any electric vehicle manufacturing? Is that what happened here? Is that why so many people lost their jobs? Now let's take a look at what happened under President Joe Biden, at least so far. According to the Detroit news, so far the number of jobs in vehicle and parts manufacturing in Michigan has held essentially steady during Biden's term in the White House, increasing by 2% to about 169,000 jobs in August, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

statistics, which is just really fascinating because a number, another number I'd like to share with you is that we're dealing with a record low unemployment rate. The labor market is so tight that employers don't really have the same leverage that they used to have, which is why you see workers flexing their muscle, exercising their leverage, and essentially using that leverage to secure better pay and benefits. That is part of the reason why over the past summer, we have seen the labor movement really blossom in a way that gives people like me hope at least. Okay. Now, and look, I want to be fair. I do want to be fair to Trump. I don't want to just automatically dismiss arguments because I don't align with an individual politically. I think that that is a fool's errand and it is important to be thorough in what the reality is. And the fact of the matter is that the United Auto Workers were in fact concerned that shifting over to electric vehicles was going to harm their workers. They even put out a report about it. A past report from the United Auto Workers acknowledged the shift to electric vehicles means replacing key power train components such as engines with mechanically simpler lithium ion batteries and electric motors. Whereas traditional power trains have often been made by automakers themselves and created

quality union jobs, EV batteries are mostly made by suppliers in other countries with China in the lead, according to the report that they put out. And this is exactly why UAW president Sean Fane was really not a fan of Joe Biden. He was actually super salty toward Joe Biden because of the electric vehicle policies. I mean, look, regardless of what you think about the necessity for electric vehicles, you have to acknowledge that Sean Fane's number one priority is to look out for his workers. That is his job. That is what he's doing. So when he's critical of Biden over EV policy, that is where he's coming from.

And I think that that is the right perspective to have as an individual who's fighting on behalf of the workers here. So as recently as May of this year, Reuters had put out a headline that read as follows, UAW not yet endorsing Biden for second term citing EV policies. And at the time, Fain argued that the federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition with no strings attached and no commitment to workers. The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom. We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments. Again, he is hitting the nail on the head.

He is doing exactly what he needs to do as the UAW president. And look, to Biden's credit, credit where credit is due, rather than ignoring what Sean Fane was saying, rather than trashing the UAW workers, Biden decided to hold a meeting with Sean Fane. So Sean Fane travels to D.C. and meets with the Biden administration. And apparently following that meeting, Biden invested in building the cars and trucks in the United States. In August, Biden actually signed a $200 billion, $280 billion bipartisan bill to boost domestic high-tech manufacturing in a bid to help the country compete with China. So compete with China means, no, no, no, we want to bring manufacturing.

We want to help grow manufacturing jobs here in the United States. We are going to, yes, focus on building electric vehicles here. We're also going to provide some resources to uplift auto manufacturing of gas powered vehicles, I'm assuming, here in the United States as well, because we want to compete with China. And as we all know, Biden did something unprecedented this week. One day prior to Trump addressing workers at, you know, at Drake Enterprises, he decided to go to the picket line and give the striking United Auto Workers a lot of encouragement. And here's what that look like.

Wearing a union ball cap and armed with a bullhorn. President Biden told the striking United Auto Workers to keep fighting for higher wages. We built the middle class. So let's keep going. You deserve what you've earned, and you've earned a hell of a lot more than you're getting paid now. President Biden, who exchanged fist bumps with the workers, the historic visit to the picket line was personal and political, underscoring a long career backing labor.

To have the President of the United States walk the picket line in support of workers, that's huge. The President is trying to shore up his support among working voters as he seeks re-election, and to reclaim a state he won by about 3% in 2020 after Trump's 2016 victory in the battleground. The UAW has yet to endorse Mr. Biden, but union president, Sean Fane, cheered on his visit today. Our president chose to stand up with workers in our fight for economic and social justice. Now look, I get that this is optical, like this is a politically optical benefit for, Biden and his reelection campaign. And if it was just that, if this was just theater, I would say it.

I would say this is just theater. Biden is actually doing nothing to help these workers. But the proof is in the pudding. He meets with Sean Fane, he hears him out, and he actually carries out the policy that the United Auto Workers are looking for. That's someone with an open mind, an open heart, and I really do respect that. Because again, if all he did was provide the illusion of an individual. who cares about the working class when in reality he could not care less, I'd have a problem

with that. Which brings me back to Donald Trump. Now, Sean Fane seems to have warmed up to Joe Biden because of the fact that Joe Biden is actually hearing out the workers and looking out for them. He doesn't feel the same way about Donald Trump. Here's what he had to say about him. I find it odd he's going to go to a non-union business to talk to union workers. I don't think he gets it. Well, Sean, he didn't talk to union workers. Again, we'll get to that story a little later in the show. The vast majority of people there were either Drake Enterprises, employees, and politicians. There were some accounts of United Auto Workers present, but we don't know the exact number. And there were also some people who were holding signs implying

that they were part of the United Auto Workers. And then when reporters talked to them, they said, no, we're actually not. Weird. It's a weird, weird thing to happen. Again, we will look into that in just a moment. But before we do, here's what Sean Fane also had to say about Donald Trump. I find a pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a non-union business. And, you know, all you have to do is look at his track record. His track record speaks for itself. In 2008, during the Great Recession, he blamed you a members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies. That's, that's a complete lie. In 2015, when he was running for president, he talked about doing a

rotation, taking all these good paying jobs in the Midwest and moving them somewhere in the south where people work for less money and then to make people beg for their jobs back at lower wages. And the ultimate show of his, how much he cares about our workers, was in 2019 when he was the president of the United States. Where was he then? GM was our workers at GM were on strike for 60 days for two months. They were out thrown the picket lines. I didn't see him hold a rally. I didn't see him stand up at the picket line. And I sure as hell didn't hear him comment about it. So here's the question. He was missing in action. He was missing in action. Now he'll he'll show up when it comes to again providing the illusion of someone who wants to fight for the

class, fight for blue collar workers in America. But he doesn't actually show up when push comes to shove. He secured massive tax cuts for corporations, taking the corporate tax rate from 35% to a mere 21%. Didn't do away with the corporate deductions and loopholes, which meant that the effective tax rate for many of these corporations was almost zero. I mean, some of these incredibly successful companies got tax rebates or refunds when they filed their taxes. And what has Joe Biden done during his presidency? And I say this is someone who doesn't really like Joe Biden that much. But credit where credit is due, he secured a 15% minimum tax rate for corporations. He also secured a 1% tax on corporate stock buybacks to, you know, basically stop incentivizing

the corporate stock buybacks that take place. How about you invest in the company? How about you invest in your workers? How about you take care of the very individuals who are generating the revenue and the profits for your company? That's the message that Biden sends through the passage of this type of legislation. Donald Trump, though, haven't seen any of that. And I think that's really important to keep in mind as he does what I think he does best. Act and pretend that he is something that he clearly is not. All right, when we come back from the break, I'm going to get into the details about who actually attended Trump's

speech last night. And then stick around because my favorite story of the day has to do with the first day of Biden impeachment hearings. Unbelievable amusing. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian here with you, and let's get right to our next story. What about the meeting with Trump? Would you meet with him when he's in Detroit tomorrow? I see no point in meeting with him because I don't think the man has any, has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for. He serves a billionaire class and that's what's wrong with this country. UAW President Sean Fain made it abundantly clear that he does not see former President Donald Trump as a warrior for the working class.

He had no intentions of meeting with Trump as he addressed workers, non-unionized workers at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township, Michigan yesterday. Now, the question remains, who attended Trump's speech last night? Were they just employees from Drake Enterprises? Were there any unionized employees there? Did anyone from the United Auto Workers who were currently striking show up to support the former president? Well, the truth is unsettling, a little shady, and I want to give you the reporting surrounding the story. So let's begin with NBC News, which reported that the audience was a mix of workers from the host company, again, Drake Enterprises. and UAW members and area politicians.

Many in the crowd waved union members for Trump signs printed in the University of Michigan's blue and gold colors. Fascinating, okay, great. So it sounds like, you know, regardless of how I feel about Trump, that makes it appear as though. There were, in fact, some UAW workers there, some unionized workers who support Trump and see him as a warrior for the working class. except then you dig a little deeper. And one thing that I would recommend to anyone in regard to like media literacy and kind of getting to the truth of any story is these national sources, whether it be New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News, they're fine, but see if there's any local reporting on it.

Luckily, the Detroit News reported on this story. And reporters from the Detroit News spoke to some of the individuals who attended, including those who held signs that implied that they were unionized workers. Here's what they found. One individual in the crowd who held a sign that said union members for Trump acknowledged that she wasn't a union member when approached by a Detroit news reporter after the event. So that's a little strange. I mean, if you're not a union worker, why would you hold a sign that says union workers for Trump?

I don't know, but there's more. One person with a sign that read, auto workers for Trump said he wasn't an auto worker when asked for an interview. Both people didn't provide their names. Fascinating. Now look, let's be a thousand percent clear. It is unclear, absolutely unclear, why they presented themselves in such a deceptive way or how many, if any, united auto workers or unionized employees were present at Trump's speech.

But Drake Enterprises is not a union shop. It's important to know that. And they have around 150 employees total, okay? The Detroit News reported that there was a crowd there, an estimated 4 to 500 people attended Trump speech. It's not a small crowd. Great. But who were these people? It's hard to believe that there were a ton of UAW strikers attending the speech

when the president of the UAW, Sean Fane, hasn't been very supportive of Donald Trump. Doesn't see Donald Trump as a warrior for the working class. And here's an example of some of what Sean Fain had to say about Donald Trump in the past. I find a pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a non-union business. And, you know, all you have to do is look at his track record. His track record speaks for itself. In 2008 during the Great Recession, he blamed UAW members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies.

That's a complete lie. In 2015, when he was running for president, he talked about doing a rotation. taking all these good paying jobs in the Midwest and moving them somewhere in the South where people work for less money and then to make people beg for their jobs back at lower wages. And the ultimate show of his how much he cares about our workers was in 2019 when he was the President of the United States. Where was he then? Our workers at GM were on strike for 60 days, for two months, they were out thrown in picket lines. I didn't see him hold a rally. I didn't see him stand up at the picket line, and I sure as hell didn't hear him comment about it.

So here's the question. He was missing in action. So it's hard to believe that someone like Sean Fane, who represents the United Auto Workers, would say those kinds of things about Donald Trump and then see a ton of United Auto Workers attend Trump speech. Now, NBC News also asked whether there were any UAW workers present at Trump speech, and the answers were, to be honest with you, pretty hilarious. So there was Brian Pennenbecker, who's a former auto worker who organizes this Facebook page titled Auto Workers for Trump.

And here's what he told NBC News in an interview. There are a few strikers here, yes. I don't know where they're at, but there are several, a handful. There was one striking UA member, UAW member there named Scott Malifant. So there's at least one. We know that there was at least one, okay? And here's what he had to say. I haven't seen anybody yet, Malifant wearing a Make America Great Again hat said as he waited for Trump to arrive.

I'm sure there might be a few. And look, I think it's clear at this point that there wasn't like this giant crowd of unionized workers who love Trump so much that they decided to attend the speech. There might have been a handful. We don't know the exact numbers. But what we do know is that Donald Trump and his campaign has a history of literally paying people to show up to his campaign events, holding signs and pretending to be supporters of his. I think a really good example of that is what happened in 2015 when he announced that

he was running for president. Remember the coming down from the elevator moment? Well, we learned quite a bit from Corey Lewandowski, who at the time was his campaign manager. Now, several years later, while speaking to the press, he had some pretty strong allegations about what happened in terms of drawing a crowd for Trump's presidential announcement. Michael Cohen decided that he was going to hire one of his buddies and pay his buddy without getting any campaign approval. You know, $50 for every person to come in to stand in Trump Tower.

Again, that's quite an accusation. Now, Michael Cohen denies this, but Michael Cohen also said that Donald Trump hired David Schwartz from the PR firm Gotham government relations and communication to basically put together the event professionally, okay? So David Schwartz, by the way, confirmed this. And his confirmation is freaking hilarious. He says, the reality is we hired 50 people, some of whom were part-time actors. I found out later on.

But we hired 50 people to help coordinate an event that brought in thousands of people. By the way, the Hollywood reporter at the time that the campaign launched, reported that the campaign had offered $50 to. actors to attend the announcement. So look, I share that with you not to just dunk on Trump. Who cares about that? I say that to you because much like how Twitter bots operate, it's all meant to give you the illusion that a certain person or a certain message is popular or the illusion that a certain person or message is unpopular. You can manipulate numbers. You can manipulate, on social media certainly, you can manipulate accounts to make it appear as though there's a giant amount of people who either support something or do not support something. And in the case

of presidential campaigns or any political campaign, really, you can just find a PR firm that's willing to dole out 50 bucks apiece to actors willing to pretend to be your supporters. What really matters is the truth. And the truth is Donald Trump has not really been a warrior for the working class. And I think unionized workers are aware of that. Because any time a powerful individual, certainly a powerful individual in government has something negative to say about organized labor, they pay attention. They know. And they don't like it. The fact that Donald Trump, through his campaigning, decided to go after the UAW, to go after the unionized workers was not something that they took lightly. It's not something that they forgot. So the idea

that he is highly popular among these people is laughable to say the least. Who knows how many actual workers unionized or not unionized attended that event last night. But regardless of one event, I think it's important to look at his record and look at what he has done to either support or hurt workers. And based on what I've seen throughout my time covering him, covering the policies he passed during his time as president, he hasn't really cared much about workers. He has cared a lot about himself, and he even used last night's speech to really just talk about all of his grievances, his indictments. He did some testing on what kind of nicknames he would call people, whether it was fascist or Marxist. I mean, that's what he does.

He loves to riff, but usually when he riffs, he riffs about what he wants and needs, rather than addressing the wants and needs of ordinary people. So there's two different stories we're going to touch on. My favorite is going to come after the break. But I do think it's important to lead with this. I'm asking you a very direct question. You presented a piece of evidence that you say came on August 6th, 2017 that demonstrates that Joe Biden was using political influence to help his son.

If he wasn't a political figure at that time, the first WhatsApp message you put up. How does that demonstrate that there's some sort of political influence being put over him, If at that time, he is not a political, he's not an elected official. I'm definitely not going to pinpoint one item. I think we've outlined. You presented it. It was your first thing that you brought up. Oof, things are not going well for House Republicans seeking to impeach President Joe Biden.

Now, what you just watched was Republican Representative Jason Smith from Missouri, fumbling pretty hard during a press conference yesterday, alleging that there was, in fact, some sort of connection between President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings. Republicans are alleging that Joe Biden sold his access, sold his influence in an effort to secure tens of millions of dollars from foreign business people. But the evidence has not been presented yet. And as you can tell from that exchange, which involved NBC's Ryan Nobles, Republicans can't even seem to get their timeline right. I mean, it was just embarrassing to say the least.

So why don't we take a little more, why don't we look a little more at how that exchange went down? And then I'll fill you in on the rest. If I'm not mistaken, August 7th, 2020, Bill Barr was the attorney general and Donald Trump was the president. So explain to me where the two-tiered system of justice comes in play. And then the WhatsApp message you have, I believe is dated June 6th, 2017. Joe Biden is not vice president or even a candidate for president at that time. So where is the direct connection to some sort of criminal malfeasance within these two pieces of evidence?

It doesn't matter who's in the White House. We need to make sure that the Department of Justice works for all people and doesn't treat those who are politically connected are wealthy much differently. Would you suggested that Joe Biden being the president now is unfairly treating Donald Trump in his indictments? What I'm talking about is the 700 pages that we have before us, which is all the information that came from the IRS whistleblowers. Can you explain the timing then of the August 6th? What's that message? Why is that evidence of some wrongdoing? I'm not an expert on the timeline. I would love to have President Biden and his family to tell us about all the timelines.

But if he's not the president or the vice president at that time, where's the wrongdoing? He wasn't even a candidate for president at that time. Come on, man. Come on, man. Come on, corn pop was a bad dude. That was so embarrassed. Guys, you're gonna hold a press conference. You're gonna move forward with impeachment hearings. Do you really think that you can just like skate on by with nonsense, with no evidence, not even knowing the timeline of what you are accusing the President of the United States of doing? It's unbelievable.

So let's break this down, okay? Break down all the information that the House Ways and Committee, Ways and Means Committee, how, has in regard to these allegations against President Joe Biden. So committee chairman Jason Smith, the clown that you just saw in that video, summarized that the trove of material provided to the committee by two IRS whistleblowers who are now getting sued by Hunter Biden showed Joe Biden's political power and influence was the brand that Hunter Biden was selling all over the world. And that it also suggests an effort to sway U.S. policy decisions.

Now, Smith highlighted a couple of items from the contents, including a what's app message that he said was written by Hunter Biden to a business associate on June 6th, 2017. Who was president? Trump. Trump was president? June 6th, 2017. And who was Trump's vice president? Was it Joe Biden? No?

it was, oh, it was Mike Pence, the guy that was debating last night. Okay, good, it's important to know that context. I'll continue. In the message from June 6th, 2017, when Donald Trump was president of the United States, Hunter Biden writes in the WhatsApp message, bull crap, James, all around bull crap, explain to me one thing Tony brings to my table that I so desperately need that I'm willing to sign over my family's brand and pretty much the rest of my business life. What the effing documents, read the effing documents, people.

It's plain effing English. Why in God's name would I give this marginal bully the keys my family's only asset? Now look, we don't know the context surrounding that clearly, but apparently that's a piece of evidence that Republicans have latched on to as part of their impeachment related investigation into Joe Biden. Now Smith claims that the family, that the family asset is Joe Biden, that Hunter Biden talks about his father that way, that his father is a family asset. Okay, great. But remember, Joe Biden has no political power during this time, because what was the date again, guys? Was June 6th. What was the year again? 2017. Say it, give it to me like

aggressively, John. June 6th, 2017. I hope you guys heard him, okay? He's a little shy. But come on, so there's more to this. Around that same time, Hunter Biden divorced his wife, Kathleen Buell, and spent some, and spent some time basically living in his father's home in Wilmington. And this is again in 2017. Now look, that might sound weird, like moving back in with your dad, but a lot of people do that after they went through a divorce, you know, like you need to find a place to live and temporarily you'll move in with a family member or a friend until you get back on your feet.

appears, that's what Hunter Biden did. Now, Hunter listed his dad's house as the billing address for his personal credit card and Apple account in both 2018 and 2019. Seems real shady. James Comer revealed Tuesday of this week that Hunter Biden then received two payments from Beijing in 2019. Okay. Now, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Comer today announced the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed and obtained two bank wires revealing Hunter Biden received payments originating from Chinese nationals, including Jonathan Lee, in July and August 2019 when Joe Biden was running for President of the United States. Joe Biden's Wilmington Delaware home is listed as the beneficiary address for both wires

because Hunter Biden was living there. Now remember, this is in 2019 when Joe Biden is presumably running for president. But actually, even that's unclear, because we don't know if Hunter Biden received those payments before Hunter Biden officially announced he was running for president or a little after. But honestly, I think it's a bit of a moot point because at that point, he's candidate Joe Biden. He's not the president of the United States.

has no influence or power to sell. That is super relevant. But I will continue. During Les Night's episode of the five, the resident Democrat or liberal, I guess, on that show, Jessica Tarlov tried to explain the discrepancies in Comer's claims and the case that Republicans are trying to build against President Joe Biden. Let's watch. I think that we all know how wire transactions work. So when you fill out the information of who you're wiring it to, you don't right, big guy's house, Wilmington, Delaware, you put in your account numbers, right? It goes to Hunter Biden's account. And James Comer knows this.

He also knows that Hunter Biden's personal account, which was with Wells Fargo, had been registered in Wilmington, Delaware. He, by the way, moved back in with his parents, as many grown men do when they get divorced in 2017. So not only did he have his bank account registered there, he had his personal credit card, his Apple account and his driver's license was a Delaware drug. So you can bribe the son of the presidential candidate. That's fine.

First of all, this, this is going on that entire period when Joe Biden was not a candidate. It was 2019. He'd already announced. Yeah, actually checked the dates. He announced. The money went to Hunter Biden. When you have the money going to Joe Biden, then you're going to have progress on that. So he can bribe the family members.

He was a candidate for president in 2019. And even, again, I want to reiterate, we don't even know if Biden, Hunter Biden received those two payments a little before or a little after Biden announced. But when Biden announced, he was merely a candidate for president of the United States. He wasn't a governor of a state like, let's say, Ron DeSantis. He was holding no elected office. It's super important to keep that in mind. And so in April 25th of 2019, there was an announcement video focused on Charlottesville, Virginia,

and some aides advised that Biden would soon have a campaign launch rally there. Okay, it never happened. An April 29th visit to a union hall in Pittsburgh did take place, although AIDS aggressively insisted it was not the actual start of the campaign. Eventually, the campaign started with a rally on May 19th. few blocks from the campaign ground base in Philadelphia. So Hunter Biden did in fact receive these funds after Joe Biden, possibly after Joe Biden announced his run. However, the account was in Hunter Biden's name, meaning Hunter Biden took that money. He's the one who got

paid. This whole case, this whole allegation against Joe Biden is that he's the one who was selling his access and his influence. Where is the evidence of that? Like what do people think happened that Hunter Biden took two different payments from businessmen in China, and then what? Like, took out some cash at an ATM and handed it over to Biden, and then Biden laundered the money? Like, what is the accusation here and where is the evidence? But guys, like the most frustrating part about all of this is, yes, it's a waste of time, waste of resources, absolutely. But it's also super annoying because the impeachment inquiry is launched by House Republicans. The same House of Representatives that is ensuring that we're barreling past the deadline

and leading to a government shutdown. They can't be bothered to work out whatever nonsense differences they have among one another to ensure that the government is funded. Something that's really important for, you know, active duty. military who will not get paid if there's no go if there's if the government's not open. Something that's super important to social security recipients who will not get their social security checks during a government shutdown. But you know, House Republicans can't be bothered with that because they have Donald Trump in their ear whining and crying about how, I mean,

I got impeached for demanding that Vladimir Zelensky announced a sham investigation into the Bidens, that didn't work out so well for me. So I'm gonna force you guys to do a sham investigation into the Bidens. And it's embarrassing. So embarrassing that today's hearings were, I mean, amusing, entertaining, but also depressing when you consider the fact that these are elected lawmakers who have our lives in their hands, who have the, you know, the well-being of the entire country in their hands. It is a joke, absolute joke. If they If they had evidence that prove that Joe Biden engaged in any illegal behavior or activity, we would have seen it by now.

But we haven't seen it because they don't have it. They're making up allegations and trying to find the evidence after the fact to make their case. And they have failed spectacularly. You're gonna see how when we come back from the break. Corn Pop was a bad dude. And he ran a bunch of bad boys. Documents.

Welcome back to the show, everyone, Anna Kasparian with you. Stick around for the second hour because a good friend of the show, Ramesh Sirin Ivassan, will be joining me to cover the news. Really important new FTC lawsuit that I want to share with all of you. And we'll also talk about how Intuit, which is the parent company for TurboTax, is now weaponizing race in order to prevent the IRS from offering a free tax filing service to incredibly important stories. So we'll be talking about that in the second hour. For now, though, let's get into this. In fact, I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment. You just heard from George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley, who served as one of the key witnesses for Republicans who have opened an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Now, of course, they allege that Biden sold his influence to secure tens of millions of dollars from foreign business people. They keep claiming that he took a ton of money from Beijing. But as you heard, Turley, who was brought forward by Republicans, made it pretty clear that there isn't enough evidence to file articles of impeachment. But guess what? He wasn't the only one who said that. You're about to hear from all the other witnesses that Republicans brought to this hearing to try to make their case.

Mr. Turley, I have a simple question for you. In your testimony today, are you presenting any first-hand witness account of crimes committed by the President of the United States? No, I'm not. No, you are not. Ms. O'Connor, you are the second Republican witness here today. Have you, in your testimony, presented any firsthand witness account of crimes committed by the President of the United States? I have not. Thank you.

Now, Mr. Dubinsky, as the third and final Republican witness in this hearing, have you? you in your testimony presented any firsthand witness account of crimes committed by the President of the United States? I have not. And Professor Gerhardt, given that you are the minority witness, I assume the same, correct? I'm not a fact witness, correct. Oops. Like, what is this?

What is this? What are they doing? This is insane, but also really funny and amusing. I mean, it would be funnier if we weren't wasting resources on this. And it would be funnier if we weren't about to experience yet another government shutdown under Republican leadership in the House. But this is the deal that we are having to, I guess, cope with now, right? If you're active military, you should be worried about a government shutdown. You're not going to get paid during that government shutdown.

If you receive social security checks, you can, you know, kiss them goodbye for however long the government shutdown last. Again, House Republicans can't be bothered to look out for you, but they can be bothered to engage in political theater and essentially launch an impeachment inquiry that has absolutely no evidence behind it, all in the name of politics. This is what the country has devolved to, this garbage. Now, I want to give you more information about the witnesses who Republicans brought forward and embarrassed them today. You have George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley and forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky. They said the panel had enough evidence to open an impeachment inquiry but did not have enough evidence to justify impeachment charges. Another law professor, Michael Gerhardt, of the University of North Carolina, said he had not heard credible evidence to justify the probe and warned the panel that it was being driven by partisan concerns. that was someone who was brought into this hearing by Republicans, not Democrats.

Like, did they even bother to talk to these witnesses or understand their perspective before they, A, scheduled this hearing, and B, had them testify in this hearing. But there's more. So let's back up a little bit. What are Republicans alleging? So they're alleging that Biden and his family profited from policies he pursued as vice president during former President Barack Obama's administration between 2009 and 2017. Now, separately, they also alleged that the Justice Department interfered with the criminal

investigation into Hunter Biden. You know, the same Hunter Biden who's now facing criminal federal prosecution for failing to pay his taxes and then later paying his taxes and also buying a gun when he was under the influence of crack cocaine, which you're not supposed to do. I would venture to say that in a country that is in the throws of one of the worst drug epidemics imaginable, we're swimming in guns, and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who bought those guns or went through background checks for those guns, alleging that they weren't addicted or on any drugs at all. So are we going to just prosecute? Federally prosecute all these

people over that? Okay. But he's facing those charges. And a plea deal that he had worked out with the prosecutors has been thrown out. So like what is like what is the argument when it comes to Hunter Biden? Hunter Biden's being held accountable. Maybe one of the first cases of someone tied to an individual in a position of power who's going to face actual charges. It is facing actual charges and possibly conviction of these charges. Now at the center of the investigation are allegations that Joe Biden as vice president pressured Ukraine to fire a top prosecutor by the name of Victor Shokin to shield Burisma as Hunter Biden served on the board of that Ukrainian gas company. But this has been adjudicated again and again and again.

Turns out Victor Shokin was super corrupt. And it was United States policy to fire that prosecutor, or pressure the Ukrainians to fire the corrupt prosecutor who in fact was not investigating Burisma. He wasn't doing his job because he was corrupt. Now, if Biden did pressure Ukraine to fire this top prosecutor because he was trying to provide cover for his son's criminal dealings, okay, great. But A, where are Hunter Biden's criminal dealings with Burisma? There's no evidence of that. And B, how do you account for the fact that this was literally U.S. policy at the time? It wasn't Biden policy. Biden was simply the vice president who carried out the policy. And then finally, they claim that numerous U.S. and foreign officials have said

that Biden was carrying out, oh, I should note this. So numerous U.S. and foreign officials have said that Biden was carrying out foreign policy to fight corruption in Ukraine when he called for the firing of Victor Shokin. Okay. Now that we got that out of the way, let's go back to the fun. So the hearing was so laughable that Democrats started clowning House Republicans, especially James Comer for just how embarrassing the entire hearing was. Here's a little taste of that. Steve Bander just went on and said, perhaps the Republicans shouldn't have started with a witness. He was talking about Professor Turley, who was going to say right off the bat that there wasn't an impeachable offense. I quote, he says, perhaps we should have put him on the maybe list for one of

our witnesses. That was Democratic Representative Moskowitz. I'm basically referencing what Steve Bannon literally did say on his podcast. I went back to see if it was true. It was true. Here's Bannon commenting on the hearing today. One of the professors there, it gives the opening dialogue and he's got some nice things he's laying out and he's impeachable. And then Raskin right on his cross, right on his cross. And I think I heard this correctly.

No, have you seen any impeachable offenses? No, is this worse than Trump on January 6th? No. That's maybe not a witness I call initially to lay out the case. Why? Because he didn't say what you were hoping he would say. Bannon's the guy who defrauded Trump supporters who had donated millions of dollars to help fund Trump's border wall. What Bannon later did was he took the money and he stuffed it in his pockets. He was prosecuted for that, he was found guilty of that, and you know what Trump did? He swooped right in and pardoned him, looked out for his criminal buddies. That's who Steve Bannon is.

So it's rich to hear Steve Bannon talk about the criminality of anyone else when he himself is a criminal, someone who stole from donors, grassroots individuals who thought they were donating to something that turns out they weren't actually donating to because the real people who benefited from that money were people like Steve Bannon who like really fancy things, you know, real working class warrior there. But with that said, look, you've lost Bannon in regard to how this hearing went, but you've also lost conservative media because Neil Cavuto weighed in on it, and here's what that looked like. I don't know what was achieved over these last six plus hours. Welcome everybody on Neil Covado. I want to put in perspective here, though, and we are going

to legally go through all the details, but James Comer, the Oversight Committee chairman, had said that there would be presented a mountain of evidence against Mr. Biden. It was referring to President Biden. But none of the expert witnesses today presented yet any proof for impeachment. Now, to be clear, this was not about impeachment. This was about launching an impeachment inquiry. But it is worth pointing out that none of the witnesses today were factually. witnesses. That means that none were involved in the investigation into the alleged

activities in the first place. What's more, none of the witnesses testified today of direct knowledge of what Republicans have been claiming about Joe Biden. Because that evidence, as far as we know, doesn't exist, we would have seen it by now. Absolute clown show. We got to Take a break. When we come back, Ramesh, Sierra Navasan will join me for the second hour. Don't miss it. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.